SANDY, UT (Friday, April 21, 2023) – Real Salt Lake (2-5-0, 6 pts., 12th West) return home this weekend for MLS Matchday Nine, welcoming longtime rivals San Jose Earthquakes (4-2-2, 14 pts., 4th West) on Saturday (7:30p MT kickoff on the Apple MLS Season Pass w/ Max Bretos & Brian Dunseth (ENG) / Bruno Vain & Andres Agulla (SPN); 7:00p MT radio pre-game w/ Landon Southwick & Jay Nolly via www.KSLSports.com / 1280 AM / 97.5 FM and www.KSLNewsRadio.com / 1160 AM).
Real Salt Lake returns home Saturday surely encouraged by last week’s performance in a 2-1 loss at Dallas, which came on the heels of a drought-snapping, dominant 3-1 win at home two weeks ago over Charlotte. Last time out at America First Field, RSL’s 3-goal / 6-minute outburst equaled the number of goals RSL had scored in the first five MLS reg. season games overall. MF Pablo Ruiz, FW Anderson Julio and FW Jefferson Savarino each found the back of the net during a six-minute second-half span in Sandy to reverse an 0-1 halftime deficit. The outburst marked the Utah side’s second-fastest three-goal effort in its 19-year history, eclipsed only by a three-goal, five-minute surge in mid-2014 against Rocky Mountain Cup rival Colorado Rapids.
Ruiz’ equalizer in the 59th minute, followed quickly by Julio’s 62nd-minute game-winner and Savarino’s insurance strike in the 65th – each goal the first of the year for the South American trio – also featured a pair of assists from newcomer **Andrés Gómez**. Gómez’ two-assist effort at the age of 20 years, 208 marked the second-youngest double-assist match in RSL history, behind current RSL Academy coach Jordan Allen’s accomplishment at 20 years, 13 days back in 2016.
RSL’s 3-1 victory over Charlotte set the stage for RSL to potentially earn back-to-back home wins for the first time since last May 28/June 18, when a 2-0 win over San Jose followed a 3-0 win over Houston to boost RSL to 8W-4L-4T last summer, the wins part of a 10-game home unbeaten run.
Starting on Saturday, America First Field will host four of RSL’s next five MLS reg. season matches, as RSL welcomes San Jose, Seattle, LAFC and Portland over the next month as Pablo Mastroeni’s side seeks to recapture the form that saw the Club post an 18W-7L-9T home record in 2021/22 MLS campaigns.
Intermingled with the upcoming, home-dominant MLS slate is the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup campaign, which kicks off this Wednesday at 8:00 MT with a midweek road match at USL Las Vegas Lights, with that match streamed live via www.KSLsports.com and the KSL Plus app. Should RSL advance Wednesday, its Fourth-Round USOC contest would be midweek on May 9/10 (site/opponent TBD), just days after RSL’s road trip to Houston on Sat., May 6.
RSL FW Jefferson Savarino has scored in each of the Claret-and-Cobalt’s last two matches, as well as providing the game-winning assist in the 3-1 win against Charlotte two weeks ago. The Venezuelan international’s attacking explosion gives him 30 goals and 29 assists in his 107-game RSL career, placing Savarino just one assist away from joining four other RSL players in the vaunted “30/30” club.
